Neglected, Gowliguda bus depot collapses, no injuries

Hyderabad: One of the city’s important landmarks, the ‘Mississippi aircraft hangar’, located at Gowliguda on the southern side of the city collapsed on Thursday.

Heritage activists and citizens attribute it to the failure of the authorities in carrying out timely repairs. 

However, no one was injured in the incident.

The hangar was commissioned by the Nizam VII in the 1930s and was brought in by sea from the United Kingdom. 

Report carried by DC in June 12 edition

INTACH member Anuradha Reddy said the structure was originally meant for the maintenance of aircraft. “The seventh Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, used it for his fleet of public transport buses manufactured by Albion Automotive of Glasgow. The huge aircraft hangar was brought by sea, transported to Hyderabad and reassembled at Gowliguda. A similar one was installed at Begumpet airport for aircraft,” she said. 

The hangar has been in a rundown condition for the last few years. The Deccan Chronicle reported this as recently as June 12.  "The government is to be blamed for it. Repeated pleas by heritage groups fell on deaf ears," Ms Reddy said. 

According to the locals, at around 7.20 am on Thursday, the structure collapsed with a loud thud. "No one was inside the hangar which was a bus trans-shipment point earlier and was closed down a week ago after an iron rod of the frame bent," said a security guard at the premises. There was no loss of property or human life. Officials of the TSRTC had visited and inspected the structure three days earlier and the acting managing director of the TSRTC was scheduled to visit the place at 9.30 on Thursday. But two hours before the visit the structure collapsed. 

Police stopped traffic for some time on the Putli Bowli to Afzalgunj road and police patrol teams from Afzalgunj and Sultan Bazaar police stations were rushed to the spot.

Regional manager of Hyderabad Region, TSRTC, C. Vinod Kumar, said that they were anticipating the structure to collapse after an iron rod at the food stalls bent last week. The TSRTC plans to dismantle the structure and construct a new building. 

According to the TSRTC officials, 2,500 bus trips were operated from the depot and inter-change of 250 buses is done in the depot. Minister for Transport, P Mahender Reddy, who visited the site in the afternoon, said that the space will be used to generate additional revenue for the TSRTC.

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